LAWRENCEVILLE — While the weather outside may be frightful to warm-climate transplants like the Hun School’s Hashim Moore and the Lawrenceville School’s Sam Borst-Smith, their play on the hardwood did not suffer at all yesterday.

In fact, Moore from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and Borst-Smith from Los Angeles, Calif. became part of a basketball instant classic at Lavino Field House yesterday.

Despite trailing by six points after three quarters on their home floor, the Big Red rallied to force overtime, then battled back to take the lead when Borst-Smith converted a three-point play with 44.7 seconds remaining in the extra session.

But with Moore soaring to the hole for a layup with 24.5 seconds left, the Raiders looked as though they were going to conquer OT, until another Lawrenceville postgraduate, Matt Johnson from Northern Burlington High, drove the length of the floor to the hole for a layup to win the game with 1.5 seconds left.

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A timeout was never awarded, though Hun was not fully sure it had one to take, as the Big Red came away with a 47-45 win in front of a boisterous, packed house.

“We had to stay under control and not get scared down two or three points with only a few minutes to go,” said Borst-Smith, who led the Big Red with 15 points.

It was his defense which had an equally big impact as Borst-Smith came up with eight steals to spoil what had been a 10-point Hun lead late in the first half.

“There were a couple of plays we’d like to have back; turnovers we shouldn’t have had,” said Moore, a Princeton University recruit who scored five of his nine points in OT. “We let them back in the game.”

With Roy Brooks scoring 14 points and Lewis Hayes scoring 12, the Big Red erased a 34-28 deficit after three quarters. When Brooks scored inside with 4:05 left in the fourth quarter, the home team suddenly had a 38-34 lead.

Then the Raiders answered as Fergus Duke, who led all scorers with 17 points, got hot hitting two of his four 3-point field goals in the final 3:40 to knot the game at 40 with just under two minutes remaining.

With the use of two timeouts, Lawrenceville held the ball until the end of regulation, only to see Hayes miss a fallaway to force overtime.

“We were trailing with a minute left in overtime, but we knew we just had to go out and execute,” said Borst-Smith, who may end up at Columbia University next year. “We battled all the way.”

Falling behind, 43-42, when Moore hit a pair of free throws with a minute to go in the extra session, Borst-Smith turned the game when he scored in the lane and was fouled to swing the game back into Lawrenceville’s favor. Yet, after Moore’s high-flying drive with under 25 seconds left, Johnson took control, slicing to the hole for his lone field goal.

“I kind of expected that,” Moore said of Johnson’s decisive drive. “We trying to use this as a positive as we get ready for the rest of the season.”

Not that far down the line, both teams hope to meet again when the Mid-Atlantic Prep League Tournament takes place at Peddie Feb. 8-10.

Before that, the Big Red will need to turn up the heat one more time Saturday when they host Peddie at 3:30 p.m. with the MAPL top seed on the line.